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What's Up Next for the Xbox 360?

Over the last few weeks, we've documented just about everything you'll ever want to know about Microsoft's latest piece of gaming hardware, the recently launched Xbox 360. We've told you all about the system's cutting-edge multimedia capabilities, the tremendous Xbox Live support, as well as the games that were available at launch. Of course, this is just the beginning of the console's life cycle, so we figured that now would be as good a time as any to check out what's in store for the future of the system. Over the next few days, we'll be taking a look at some of the games that you can expect to see in 2006 and beyond. Although most of these titles have been officially announced, we don't really know all that much about them, a fact that isn't about to stop us from speculating. So, without further ado, let's take a look into the Xbox 360's future.

Ninety-Nine Nights

While it would be easy to dismiss this action title as a Dynasty Warriors clone, it's got a lot of things going for it. One of the biggest draws is the fact that Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the man responsible for groundbreaking games like Rez, Lumines, and Space Channel 5, has put his considerable weight behind the game. His production company, Q Entertainment (along with Phantagram), is hard at work on the upcoming title, and you can be sure that it'll offer something more intriguing than Koei's annual slashfests. However, despite Mizuguchi's involvement, we're not expecting a lot of techno music (sorry Sterling!).

We don't know much about the game's storyline yet, but after seeing it in action, we know that it'll have some amazingly large-scale battles. When I say large scale, however, I don't just mean a few hundred combatants. Phantagram has stated that they're aiming to have several thousand enemies on-screen at the same time, and the player will be tasked with killing each and every one of them. You'll hack 'em, you'll slash 'em, and you'll finish them off with the shockingly powerful "Overspark" attacks, which basically has the effect of dropping a nuclear bomb on the battlefield. At that point, you can just sit back and watch those bodies fly!

If you were anything like me, your childhood was full of waging imaginary wars with your G.I. Joes (or little green army guys), setting them up and knocking them down on a backyard battlefield. The latest game from Relic aims to recreate those heady days, dropping the player into highly destructible, WWII-era battlefields and letting them go wild as they attempt to complete their mission by any means necessary. Calling the environments destructible is actually a bit of an understatement, as you can blow up, smash through, or knock over any and all object in the game, from the smallest brick wall to the largest building.

The game lets you choose from three different characters (with voices provided by Robert Patrick and Ron Perlman, among others): a sniper, a heavy weapons soldier, and an anti-tank expert. Taking a page from this year's highly entertaining Mercenaries, you'll be able to call in reinforcements, vehicles, and heavy weapons whenever and wherever you need them, provided you've got enough Action Points. These can be gained by killing enemy troops and capturing strategic locations, and the more you earn, the more chaos you can cause. After all, isn't pretending to wage war all about chaos and carnage?